If LinkedIn profiles are anything to go by, there is more old talent still at Rare than most people think. 

Viva Pinata the thread

That's surprising! Wonder how they could have gone from making amazing games to Kinect Sports games O.o 

Hearing the words creative and Microsoft just gets me all giddy. :) Seriously though, Microsoft commissioned the work and had the rare workers they had with them oversee it, but it was still majorly the work of the first team who worked on Street Fighter 3. Its also a testament to why the game had such good netcode.

I don't know why I take you seriously when you talk about MS. I'm gonna let you know who who from MS, oversees KI. They are Ken Lobb (original designer of KI) and Adam Isgreen (designer of the current KI).

Yes Double Helix made a kick ass netcode for KI. That's the benefit of working with 3rd parties (that you so much despise) on 1st party projects; they bring some flavor to your own.

Give up man, MS already paid tha cost to be the boss.

Sudeki:

Sudeki first release on original Xbox back in 2004 and on PC in 2005. Although the game did not show strong sales the reviews were mainly positive with aMetacritic of 72.

The game add several great points including art style, story, combat system similar to what Tales Of games use. With only about 0.19M (vgcahrtz numbers) copies sold on the original Xbox it's unlikely that we will ever see this franchise hit an Xbox platform again.

Current status.
A second entry was once planned by Climax Group but was canceled following the sales results of the first one. Sudeki also released on steam in 2014 and received mainly positive review from players. 

The studio still develops games although they're mainly ports of other studio IPs such as Deadnation (PS4, PS Vita 2014).

Why should Microsoft be interested in this game?

The financial disaster of this game can be attributed to many factors including:
Lack of marketing.
Lack of interest by xbox players of that time for this genre.
bad release schedule.

Despite this, the game still succesfully managed to gather many fans worldwide. A new entry to the franchise or a proper remaster could very well be a success if coupled with a good marketing campaign and presence at major events (E3, gamescom).

This game would also be a good addition to Microsoft Xbox One library and would help to diversify its library.

How could we see that happening?

Since Microsoft does own the rigths to the IP it could very well happen if there's demand for it.

Here's a twitter showing Spencer actualy dodging the question on a possible resurection.

Estimated cost and sale results (My opinion):
Developement Time : 2 years
Cost of developement  : Under 20M (Dev + Marketing) 
Sales : between .5m to 1.5M

BATTLE TOADS NOW OR I RAGE.

Jade Empire :

Released in 2005 this action rpg title was well received by the Xbox community. With a staggering 89 metacritics this game was one of a rare gem of its genre to ever have been released on the original Xbox. Following Xbox the game also released on Pc in 2007 through retail and Steam and later for the 360 has an Xbox original. 

With a plot set in a world inspired by ancient china the player must strengthen his body, mind and spirit along his path to rescue Master Li. The player ability to choose between 6 (7 Special Edition) main character, both male or female was also greatly appreciated and added much to the replay value of the title.

Although The game was criticized for both its length and combat system, it was praised for it's story, graphics and the depth of its universe.

Current Status

Even if the game managed to sell enough copy to be profitable (.7M Xbox alone according to Vgchartz), Bioware never planed a second entry to the franchise.

However, comments from Bioware co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk made in 2011 gave the impression that it may not completely out of questions: "It's an IP, it's a setting that we were really passionate about, and we still are. Both Greg and I were big believers in the IP... We're just looking for the right way to deploy it."

Since this comment was made well after EA acquired the group, a sequel/remaster his still very plausible.

the underlying potential

The way I see it, there's 2 main possibilities to expand the franchise.

Since the title is a decade old, a remake first would be appreciated then followed by a sequel or even a prequel. after all, the story of Jade empire takes place a few years after some big events so it's easy to think a prequel could be made to further explore this time frame.

But there's also another possibility to further expand the franchise. The title given to the game, Jade Empire, was extremely well choose. Only by reading it you could have told that this game, both in art style, story, soundtrack and gameplay, was related to china in some way.

My opinion is that it could expand in a multiverse kind of. With a slightly different you could create a completely new story and fighting style related to another civilization of our history.

For instance :
Marble Empire: Could set you during Rome apogee. 
Carnelian Empire: Could set you in a world inspired by Mesopotamia at the very beginning of civilization.
Gold Empire: Could be inspired by spanish conquest of inca/aztec.
etc.

What would you like from a new entry in this franchise?

Estimated cost and sale results:

please choose between following option and I'll update the post with average results in 2-3 days

Development Time : short(18 months to 2 years), medium (2 to 3 years), long (more than 3 years)
Cost of Development: low (less than 20M), average (20M to 30M). high (more than 30M)
Sales : Low (less than 1M), average (1M to 2M), high (more than 2M )

If I missed something on this game, let me know and I'll update later.